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Just in case you did know …
Vandals Taught the Cougars How to Play
By Marlin Smith
December 16, 1997
Everyone knows about the Cougars’ great success in football this year. However, who deserves the credit for it? Is it Mike Price, Ryan Leaf, or the Fab Five? Naw! It's IDAHO, of course!!! Why? Because we taught the Cougars how to play the game!
The official record books say that the Vandals and Cougars first played in 1894 with Washington State winning 10-0. However, this is incorrect. Idaho and Washington State actually met in a forgotten game the previous year in 1893. But, when the referee called the two teams onto the field, it was discovered that those silly Cougars had been practicing rugby, not American football. To end the confusion, Idaho volunteered to hold up the game for an hour while it taught the Cougars how to play the American game. This was sort of like Stanford teaching California how to win the Big Game. Not surprisingly, the Vandals prevailed in the 1893 game 10-0.
My source for this tidbit is a book called "The History of the PAC 10." In it, the story is told by Dave Stidolph, who, it says, lettered in track at both Idaho and Washington State and was the Director of the Athletic News Bureau at WSC in the late 1940's. It says that he discovered this piece of history while researching old Spokesman-Review [Spokane] newspapers.
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